Great Leader: Opothleyahola of the Creek

Some Native leaders were known for their abilities as field commanders or partisan strike raiders.  Others were known for their ability in diplomacy and as speakers.  There was another quality a Native leader needed, an ability to fix messes other had created, and do so in a hurry. 

Opothleyahola (1778-1863) was born in the Creek town of Tuckabatchie, in Elmore County, Alabama.  If the ending of his name sounds familiar, it's because his name means Good Child Crier.  How he got this name, when or why isn't known.  He was also given the name later in life of Laughing Fox.  Born to a Creek mother and either a mixed-race or White father, he would have receive his warrior's training from his mother's brothers.  However, he did receive some schooling, so it is possible his father provided a limited White education for him.  In his younger years, Opothleyahola fought on the side of the British against the United States in the War of 1812.  He was also among the Red Stick Creek forces at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814.  Perhaps realizing the futility of fighting against the US, he later swore allegiance to the government. 

Because of his speaking ability, he rose within his society and became a spokesman for the Creek Council.  He was known as a diplomacy chief.  With a foot in both worlds, he became a wealthy planter, joined the Freemasons and accepted Christianity as a Baptist.  As leaders ceded more and more Creek land to encroaching Whites, the National Creek Council made it illegal to sign any treaties ceding land.  However, in 1825, William McIntosh and other chiefs signed the Treaty of Indian Springs, which gave up all Creek lands in the Southeast in exchange for territory out west.  Opothleyahola was one of those who voted a death sentence for McIntosh and other signatories of the Treaty.  With someone else in charge of hunting them down, Opothleyahola turned his attention to how to fix this problem.

The Creeks planned to send a delegation to Washington to renegotiate the Treaty.  Opothleyahola had some education and could understand English, but could not speak it well.  The Creeks enlisted the help of the Cherokee.  Cherokee leader Major Ridge recommended that they utilize his son John Ridge and David Vann, another young man from an elite family, to assist Opothleyahola in making his people's case.  As they traveled to Washington, the two Cherokees helped him prepare his speeches and brief his negotiating points.  The John Quincy Adams administration agreed to a renegotiation of the treaty on more favorable terms in the Treaty of Washington of 1826.  However, Georgia officials began forcibly removing Creek people, ignoring the new treaty and Supreme Court rulings to the contrary.  Alabama also abolished Native governance and signaled its intent to begin removals.  Jackson's administration signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

Digging in their heels, Opothleyahola and other leaders signed the Treaty of Cusseta in 1832, which divided their land into parcels that individuals could sell and remove to Oklahoma or stay in the Southeast as American citizens and submit to state laws.  Opothleyahola and other leaders realized it was only a matter of time before states would seize these lands, too.  He traveled to Nacogdoches, Texas to purchase communal land for his people from the Mexican government.  United States pressure on Mexico forced them to retract the deal and Opothleyahola lost a personal investment of several thousand dollars. 

In 1836, Opothleyahola accepted a Lt. Col's commission in the army and led 1,500 warriors against the Lower Creeks and Seminoles.  He hoped that by his cooperation to gain some leeway for his people to remain in the South.  But it was not to be.  The very army that he was serving in began forcibly rounding up Creeks for deportation.  In 1837, Opothleyahola led 8,000 of his people to Oklahoma.  They began a new life as stock raisers and grain producers. 

During the Civil War, the Confederates quickly overran Oklahoma.  While some tribes, such as the Cherokee, believed their hopes lay with the Confederacy, the Creeks and Seminoles chose to remain loyal to the Union.  Opothleyahola and other leaders contacted President Lincoln, offering their services and requesting instructions.  They were told to go to Fort Belmont in Kansas to flee the Confederates.  In November, 1861, Confederate Colonel Douglas Cooper, the former US Indian Agent, led a force against the Natives gathered at Opothleyahola's plantation, intending to either force him to submit to Confederate control or drive them out of Oklahoma.  Opothleyahola led his warriors toward Kansas, accompanied by Halleck Tustenuggee and Sonuk Micco's Seminoles.  Their journey was a running retreat.  They fought three battles against the Confederates, retreating before either side could clinch a decisive victory.  This episode was known as the Trail of Blood on Ice. 

On arrival in Fort Belmont, the Creeks had no shelter and little in the way of rations.  Many people died of exposure, starvation or disease.  Opothleyahola lived long enough to hear of the death of his daughter before he, too, succumbed to the terrible conditions on March 22, 1863.  He and his daughter lie buried together in the cemetery at Fort Belmont.